It's autumn and that means it's almost...

Ridiculously adorable sea creature season!!! No wait, I mean pumpkin pie season. I am very limited in my pumpkin pie window - October through November, with a possibility of some Christmas related pumpkin pie consumption. I took to making a very simple pumpkin custardy type thing last year and might revert to that once the cans of pumpkin puree come out in full force. Now that I live with a food processor (my roommate has a staggering amount of high quality cook-ware, which is both staggeringly impressive and a little intimidating as I remain the steadfast microwave gourmand), I'm tempted to try a real pumpkin out for my pie making attempts, but the cans are so convenient and I'm terrifically lazy. Oh, also, I always like a little deadly hormone interrupting chemicals in my food and I hear canned food is good for that extra zing!

Anyways, between all the nifty winter squashes (I run to the "local squash" section of my grocery store and feel like a kid in a very odd candy store) and PUMPKIN (which I recognize is a squash, but it's also PUMPKIN!!), I am pretty satisfied with fall so far. Speaking of squash, did you know you can eat the skin of delicata squash? At least I hope so, since I've been doing so regularly. I also have become more comfortable with the idea of microwaving squash, something I used to shun. I find that keeping squash at the office is a little weird, but it's really convenient. If it's small enough, I cut it in half, put it upside down in a bowl with some water, cover with another bowl to make a weird oblong container, put it in the microwave for five minutes, help the seeds fall right out, cut in half and split with my mom. Makes a nice afternoon snack for my tastes.

It is also officially - mostly ... and finally - fall weather. This weekend was a bit on the fence, but we had a few delicious rainstorms and quite the wind tunnel going on yesterday. I ordinarily meet up with some friends to go walking around Padden on Mondays. This week though we opted for our reserved winter activity which involves about as much driving as physical activity (Sudden Valley may be a valley but it's as little less sudden then one might like!), but I never really did it for the work out. But our winter workout activity is the ever awesome Julie and Jaana Core Rhythms, so totally worth it.

In other news, it is almost October. In about two weeks I'm going to my collaborative law training, the third major step towards becoming a collaborative lawyer. The week after that, I hear about the bar finally. I am not nervous yet, but I'm rather seriously dreading that week and all that it means. It's kind of terrifying all around: either I didn't pass and I have to go through bar-exam hell again (which I really could do without), or I did pass and I have to be a lawyer! And having done a lot of shadowing and training this last month, the prospect of that kind of responsibility with the gaping maw of potential life-destroying flubs I can make in my fiduciary capacity... scarier (almost) than another three days of bar hell and the utter exhaustion of telling everyone who's breezily been telling me "oh of course you passed" that I didn't pass.

In other news, after a bit of mulling, I've decided to disengage from facebook. I feel like their model increasingly encourages passive socialization over conscious interaction. As an introvert who can initially come across as standoffish or not as friendly, I do appreciate that social networking has allowed me to show another side of my personality and arrange social activities outside of facebook in a less threatening manner. But increasingly I've felt that it has encouraged a sheer superficiality in what may otherwise have been closer friendships. (And maybe sometimes it's hard to have that ghost eye view of some people's lives)

It's easier just to watch and make elevator-appropriate comments than to email or call  I no longer have penpalships with the five or six people I used to, which is at least partially attributable to the shift to social media. It's always been strange to me that people who have previously emailed me now choose to use the facebook. 

I also feel wary that the default is to share EVERYTHING. It feels impersonal  In person, each interaction is conscious, and while that can be intimidating to an introvert, it's also more meaningful.

This - so far - is what I like about google plus - you have to choose consciously which people to share with and what to share... the default is essentially not sharing. It makes the sharing more interesting and more conscious. Also is no wall that you can "stalk" for individuals. There's only what they've specifically chosen to share with you. It saves a lot of idle skulking, which of course i would NEVER do on Facebook. Ever. Never whipping out the spanish to english dictionaries to translate a conversation in somebody's comments or anything like that... 

I am still not quite ready to delete my profile and cut off access to all that contact information for the 300 odd people I may not keep in active contact with but want to keep tabs on... but, I'm getting closer.

Until then, I have more free time not filled by mindless skulking, so I may need to crack a new book soon!